1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to screen assemblies for vibratory separators and methods for making such screen assemblies.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,450,345 issued Sep. 17, 2002 and U.S. applications Ser. Nos. 10/037,474; 10/087,025; and 10/210,891 [all said patent and said applications incorporated fully herein for all purposes] disclose, inter alia, methods for making glued screen assemblies for vibratory separators and screen assemblies made by such methods. In certain aspects the glue used is hot melt glue which is allowed to cool at room temperature to complete the process of screen assembly manufacture. In many instances it takes up to twenty minutes for the glue in a screen assembly to cool so that the screen assembly can then be stored or packaged and shipped.
In certain particular known methods for making a glued screen assembly two or more layers of screening material are placed on a heated platen apparatus. One or more layers have an amount of hot melt glue thereon and heating and compressing the layers together with the apparatus glues them together with heat from the heated platen apparatus heating the glue.
There has been a need, recognized by the present inventors, for facilitating the cooling of glued screen assemblies. There has been a need, recognized by the present inventors, to reduce the time needed to process a glued screen assembly for packaging and shipment. There has been a need, recognized by the present inventors, for a method for uniformly heating screen assembly components used to make a screen assembly.